Great Southern Bank buys Marquette buildings at foreclosure auction

The Springfield, Missouri, bank foreclosing on the Marquette properties in downtown Cape Girardeau now owns the two buildings after it was the sole bidder in a public auction held Friday at the local Common Pleas courthouse.

Great Southern Bank attempted to unload the Marquette Tower and Centre properties in the auction.

In most foreclosure sales, the note holder on a loan submits a bid, often matching the outstanding amount, which was the case with the Marquette properties.

At the courthouse Friday, Cape Girardeau City Councilman Joe Uzoaru indicated prior to the auction he intended to bid on the Marquette Tower, a large historic hotel-turned-offices at 338 Broadway, and a nearby smaller building at 221 N. Fountain St., but changed his mind when the attorney for the bank read Great Southern's $2,031,500 bid. Uzoaru, who heads Athena Property Group, bought the former federal courthouse on Broadway earlier this year and since has converted it into a multi-use office building. The former federal building is directly across from the Marquette properties.

Uzoaru indicated Friday he will pursue buying the properties directly from the bank.

Now that the bank owns the buildings, sale efforts likely will continue, Nancy Browne, an attorney for Great Southern, said Friday.

Nancy Browne, an attorney at The Limbaugh Firm, conducts a public foreclosure auction of the Marquette Tower and Centre buildings Friday, Jan. 16, 2014 at the Common Pleas Courthouse in Cape Girardeau. (Fred Lynch)

"They are a bank in southwest Missouri, so I don't think they are going to want to own property in Southeast Missouri," she said. "Holding onto real estate is just not what banks want to do."

The bank hired Browne, an attorney at The Limbaugh Firm, to oversee foreclosure proceedings on the properties after G&S Holdings LLC, a real estate holding company, stopped making payments on the loan. G&S bought the buildings from the bank for between $3 million and $4 million in a foreclosure sale in 2009.

Tenants moving from the Marquette Tower last fall, including several state offices, left the building empty, and G&S Holdings placed it, along with the Centre building, up for sale. Tom Kelsey, owner of the local commercial real estate company Lorimont Place, listed the buildings on behalf of the company, and said recently there were several prospective buyers, but none came in time to stop the auction. The company's financial trouble is also related to major legal issues for a former managing partner, Richard Gregg, who is in federal prison facing multiple charges of embezzlement and fraud.

After announcing a foreclosure sale set for Jan. 9, the bank decided to give the company one additional week to sell the buildings on its own.

Another person, Quinn Strong, said Friday he would like to bid on the Marquette Centre building alone -- the smaller Fountain Street building once used by Southeast Missouri State University for printing and shipping operations and later renovated by another owner -- but bids for the entire property, including the bank's bid, would have superseded a bid by Strong, Brown said. Strong has bought and sold other, smaller historic properties in Cape Girardeau.

Uncertainty surrounds how a Dec. 31 lawsuit filed by G&S Holdings against Great Southern Bank may affect future ownership of the buildings. In the suit, G&S asked the judge for an injunction to stop the public sale. The suit also requests cancellation of the real estate contract between the company and the bank. A case review for the suit is set for early May in Cape Girardeau County.

The properties underwent multi-million dollar renovations in the early 2000s, paid for partly by historic tax credits. The company that oversaw the renovations, Prost Builders, saved the Marquette Tower from being torn down after it fell into disrepair, but later lost it to foreclosure, blaming a lack of tenants.

About 20 people attended the auction held on the courthouse steps. Among them was Mayor Harry Rediger, who has said he wants to see vacancies addressed in several large downtown buildings, including the Marquette Tower.

Eragan@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent address:

338 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, MO

221 N. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau, MO